Running water initially cut V-shaped canyons throughout the range. Mountain glaciers later filled these canyons. Rocks of all sizes, falling onto and plucked by these glaciers, enhanced their grinding power. The broad U-shape of Cascade Canyon typifies the reshaping force of masses of flowing ice.

Upon leaving the confining canyon, the most recent mountain glacier spread onto and pressed deeply into the valley floor. Where flow equalled melting, the glacier acted like a giant conveyor belt, forming glacial moraines by depositing rock material at its sides and front. When the glacier retreated, meltwaters filled the depression surrounded by morainal ridges to form Jenny Lake. More than 200 feet deep, Jenny Lake is one in a chain of similar glacial lakes at the base of the range.

PhotoJenny Lake was named for Jenny, the Shoshone wife of Beaver Dick Leigh, a trapper who served as a guide for the U.S. Territorial Survey expedition which explored and mapped the area in 1872.

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